Dancing on Eggshells
by flawsarebeauty
Summary: Idris Dance Academy is for only the best dancers in the industry. When a new student joins, Clary can't help both hating and loving him at the same time. A mandatory partner dance project only makes it worse.
1. Chapter 1

Hey guys! For the sake of this story, Izzy is not related to Alec and Jace. Jace and Alec are brothers, but of course not biologically.

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Author POV

Clary tugged at her hair, tying it quickly into a super high and tight ponytail. Once finished, Clary did a once over in the bathroom mirror. Her red hair was tied in a simple yet classy ponytail that swung around as she moved, and she wore her favorite black nike sports bra with black calf length workout tights. On top, she wore an oversized, baggy white athletic jacket that she left unzipped.

Clary smiled happily at her reflection, and switched off the lights, humming happily. For once, she thought she looked decent. And it had good timing, as well, since today was the first day back to dance school. Idris Dance Academy was a dance school for the ultimately talented. You had to be amazing at dancing to get in, and Clary had been there for 3 years now. She had started when she was 18, and was now 21. She was in the college part of the Academy, which meant she didn't have to move. She had got into the academy after starring in a Broadway musical that had done excellently. Idris scouts had seen her in her main role in the musical and had offered for her to come to their academy. Usually, the earliest age to come to the academy was 15, but few people did. After all, Idris was extremely expensive as well.

Since Idris was super expensive, it wasn't anything like a normal college experience. There was in-room dining, and each student had their own mini-apartment, with a bed and a small lounge area in front of it. It was awesome, and Clary wished she would never have to leave. Clary sat down on the loveseat in her living room area and poked the corners of the sofa as she waited in anticipation for Izzy, her best friend, to come over. They had planned on meeting up before class to say hello to each other after the summer, and then walking to class together. Both had the same schedule: dance for 5 hours in the morning, then lunch and break, which was 2 hours. Afterwards, there was all of your basic school subjects, like math, science, and english, for 3 hours total. Clary and Izzy just texted during that time. Anyways, the subject teachers didn't care much either. It was a dance academy, not Harvard. As long as the students could dance, everything was fine.

Clary jumped at the sound of a knock on her door. She walking over and unlocked it, immediately tackling Izzy with a hug. Izzy made choked noises, unable to breathe. It had been ages (or two months) since they had seen each other, and Clary was overjoyed to see her best friend after so long.

Izzy and Clary shared summer stories, Izzy usually talking about the (multiple) summer flings she'd had, and Clary laughing along. Soon, time was up and the bell could be heard from Clary's room through the intercom. Izzy and Clary headed over to class, talking about the latest dancers who had made it big. All of them were Idris graduates.

Clary POV

It had been great seeing Izzy again. It had been two whole months and I was missing her and all of her crazy antics. As we headed over to class, I looked over at my classmates. All of them were the same, except for two people who hung around at the back of the room. Newcomers? It was unusual for them to enroll a year late, but maybe their break in the dance industry didn't happen until late. Looking at them, though, I was rather surprised. One of them was a golden god. He looked like he was made of honey-but perhaps not as sweet. His face had a cocky smirk that I was sure would make girls swoon. The way his white fitted shirt clung to his body made my jaw drop. How was he that muscular, and a good dancer? Well, I'd guess we'd see soon. I forced my eyes to shift to the right, where his friend was standing as he looked around uncertainly. The boy had amazing black hair and electric blue eyes that were unforgettable. But after he realized that we were just talking to each other, he just stared with what looked like affection at Magnus. I smiled, immediately shipping the two. I was thinking of a good ship name for them when Helen, our dance instructor, walked in.

Helen was gorgeous: she was 33 year old and had raven blue, pin-straight hair that fell to her waist. Though I'm completely heterosexual, even I swooned a little when I saw her. Aline, a TA for our dance level had the biggest crush on her. It was adorable. They were one of my biggest ships.

Helen started us off with stretches. While we were doing the splits, she seemed to remember something, head jerking up with surprise suddenly. Her eyes searched through the group of 14 students that were in our dance level, ending on the two newbies.

While we stretched, Helen began introductions.

"So, guys, we have two newcomers to the class. They debuted in a Broadway musical 3 months ago, and were found by our scouts. They are your age, and at your dance level. I don't want to hear any complaints about working with a newbie. Understood?" Helen announced.

"And, can you two introduce yourselves?" Helen asked. The newbies nodded.

"Well, I'm Alec, and this is my brother, Jace. We both starred in 'A Chorus Line.'" Alec said, nodding awkwardly at the end of the statement. I think I heard Magnus sigh. I internally gasped. They both liked each other! My ship was so going to get together.

After introductions, we did a few light exercises, to make sure we kept our bodies in good condition for dancing. Jace flew threw them, smirking while we tried to catch our breaths from the exercises. Well, he seemed like a cocky bastard. As we sat down for another round of stretches, Helen told us about our first assignment for the year.

"It's your first assignment, so obviously it'll affect your grade a lot and be a lot of points as well, so you need to do this really well. Since this is an advanced class, our first assignment is going to be a partner dance, with two different kinds of songs: one more romantic, and one more party-like. I'll approve them to make sure you have good songs. Since this is a partner dance, I want you to work with someone you don't usually work with: in the entertainment industry, you don't always get to choose who you want to work with. To make sure this happens, I'm assigning partners." Helen announced, running her eyes over the room to see if anyone had any complaints.

"So, here are the partners: Magnus and Alec, Simon and Izzy, Sebastian and Kaelie, Lily and Raphael, Mark and Emma. Kieran and Julian, and Jace and Clary." I rolled my eyes. Of course I got stuck with the cocky bastard of a newcomer. We all got up and headed towards our partners. Jace just stayed put and let me come to him. Of course.

How the hell was I supposed to survive this?

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 **So... what do you think? If willing, please review below!**

 **Also, I'm not a dancer. So if at some points you think I'm making shit up (dance moves, etc.) it may very well be. However, I do try to do my research and make it as realistic as possible.**

 **~Will**


	2. Chapter 2

**Author POV**

Clary walked over to the muscular angel, standing in the corner of the room, thumbs stuck in his pockets, and a confident smirk on his face. Even though it might be a little harder to work with someone who was new to Idris, she felt pretty proud that Helen had thought she could take that responsibility. Jace quirked an eyebrow up at her.

"Ready? Think you can keep up?" Jace joked. Clary smiled.

"It's probably the other way around, angel boy." Clary taunted.

"Angel boy? Well, I totally deserve that name." Jace said, doing an imaginary hair flip and rolling his eyes.

"Well, you might look like an angel, but it seems that you act like the devil." Clary replied, winking. "Now, let's get to work, shall we?"

 **Clary POV**

The first thing we were required to do, was pick our song. Helen had decided we were doing a romantic song, but she wasn't sure about whether she had wanted us to do the party song, so she told us to put that off for right now. She passed lists out to all of us, and when I asked Jace to go get the paper for us both to see, he hoisted me up onto his shoulders (amazingly muscular shoulders) and got the paper, pretending to fall partially twice, leaving me to cling to his shirt for support. Jace looked up at me, winking.

"You're awfully eager to get my clothes off."

I snorted. "Jace, I swear, if you don't put me down right now…"

"What're you going to do, shorty?" Jace taunted. I groaned.

Helen's voice interrupted the classroom. "By now, you should have looked at the list of songs. I'm giving you five minutes to prepare to perform any one of the songs of this list, I'll pick the song, which you will have to perform in front of the classroom. The purpose of this assignment is to get more comfortable with yourself, get better at making your moves look cleaner in a shorter period of time, and getting closer to your partner. Ready? Your time starts now."

I cussed, and Jace did at the same time, letting me down from his shoulders. We peered at the list of romantic songs.

 ** _Say You Won't Let Go_**

 ** _Can't Help Falling In Love_**

 ** _Shape of You_**

 ** _Can't Sleep Love_**

 ** _Earned It_**

 ** _Love Me Like You Do_**

 ** _I Don't Want to Live Forever_**

While the songs weren't too bad, they were all slow, which meant our movements would be too. Since our movements would be slow, Helen would have more time to examine our technique and form-something we probably wouldn't have time to master in 5 minutes. Jace and I compiled a list of moves that could be used for any of the songs, and we spent about a minute making sure it looked halfway decent. I was incredibly nervous, and I think Jace was, too, his brow was furrowed in concentration, and he kept running his hands through his golden hair.

Finally, time was up. Helen called us over, where we formed a ring around her, enough area for each of us to perform our dances. Kieran and Julian went first, performing "Shape of You" and although neither seemed too happy to be partnered with the other, their dance went well. Sebastian and Kaelie were next, performing "Love Me Like You Do." Even though the song was on the slower side, they managed to dance in a way that made the song feel more like something I would hear at Pandemonium-the club that all the attendants of Idris went to over the weekends. Lily and Raphael danced to "Can't Help Falling In Love" after which Raphael winked at Simon and blew him a kiss. I could hear Simon gulp. Then we were called up. We were told to perform "Earned It" which made me freak out a little-not just because we hadn't practiced enough for this one, but also because this song had a lot of touching. A lot of it. Other groups had mainly been able to stay away from too much physical contact, dancing next to each other in synchronization, but we had been encouraged by Aline to touch more, as she had told us that the song was slow and sensual, and the dance should be as well.

I looked over at Jace, who gave me a reassuring smile as he took a deep breath to steady himself. A second later, we both slipped on the masks of a true dancer, or so Helen had told us, people who were able to capture the emotion of the song in their faces and their bodies, truly making the experience realistic. Looking at each other like we were passionate lovers, we waited for the sound of the music before we begun our dance.

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 **And that's all for now! How do you think the dance is going to end up?**

 **Review! It really helps me figure out what you guys think about the story.**

 **And one more thing. I started this before Lord of Shadows came out. I liked Mark and Emma back then, but now...*sigh* I've got to change up the storyline. Don't worry, though, it only means...more drama!**

 **Till next time,**

 **~Will**


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